Christopher Pike – The Most Important Officer in STFC

So, my story of Christopher Pike starts last winter. It was Monday, December 23rd, 2019. It was a few minutes after 11 in the morning. I’m sitting in a waiting room in Rhode Island, waiting for a doctor’s appointment. I knew it was going to be a while before I got in because there was no reading material at all in the waiting room. None.

Carnac’s First Law of the Universe is that the length of time you’re going to be waiting in any waiting room is inversely proportional to the quality of the reading material in that waiting room.  And no reading material means you’re screwed.

So, with some time to kill, I opened STFC and decided to open a couple of Ultra Recruiting Packs. The first one was unremarkable.

And then from the second one, came this:

Christmas had come two days early!

I had no idea just how big of an impact this would have. None.

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The Captain’s Ability of Christopher Pike

I’d heard of the PMC crew in alliance chat on a regular basis. But until you’ve used this crew for yourself, it’s tough to grasp the difference they make.

I say Christopher Pike is the most important officer in the game because of the enormous difference he makes in fighting hostiles, which you’re going to need to do for dailies, for swarm events, for Borg events, etc. This is also going to help you in faction rep grinding, and if you ever want to go triple faction, you’re going to need this crew. Other officers (like Kirk in the Morale Crew) make a big difference as well, but it’s not to this extent.

Pike’s Captain’s Ability is “Teaching Moments.” He increases the effectiveness of all officers on the bridge by 20%.

Now, when you combine this bonus with Marlena Moreau for synergy, you can increase this ability. This then amplifies Moreau’s “No Fear” ability, which reduces the Armor Piercing, Shield Piercing, and Accuracy of hostiles. You then add Chen and her “Energy Absorber” ability if you’re fighting hostiles that feature energy weapons (normally explorers, battleships, and survey ships.) Add T’Laan if you’re killing interceptors (such as swarms on the Franklin.) These crew combinations will mitigate just about all of the damage from hostile ships.

AND when you combine the PMC crew with ships that give bonuses for fighting hostiles, like the Intrepid, B’Rel, or Gladius, you’re going to be able to grind through a lot of hostiles without repairing.

Where it doesn’t work

Sadly, Pike’s Captain’s ability only works with combat ability. You can’t, for example, combine him with Stonn to pump up your ship’s cargo capacity on raids. It will show an increased capacity, but the actual amount of resources you extract from your victim won’t be increased at all. The PMC Crew also doesn’t work against mission bosses or armada targets.

He also doesn’t work with Cadet Scotty to increase your ship’s warp range. Sorry. It may show up that it increases your range by 8, but you can’t actually go there. You get an error message, and your ship stays put.

To demonstrate, here’s a D’Vor with a warp range of 33. It can’t reach the Romulan system of Terminimurus, that requires a range of 40

So I added Scotty. And it does look like he increases the warp range by 8.

But when you actually try to go there, you get the error message, “The warp path you have specified is invalid.”

And I hate to be the one to break this news to you, as I really, really, really wish it worked. It would that I could mine in Suliban space with my D’Vor.

His Officer Ability…

Is broken. And you honestly won’t care. His captain’s ability is that good that he can have a completely useless officer ability and you won’t give it a second thought.

It would be cool if he could actually increase the ship XP earned from combat.

Getting Pike

He’s available in Ultra Recruit packs, and in event variations of Ultra Recruit Packs. He’s also available to be purchased with Transporter Patterns.

Christopher Pike Trivia

Four actors have played Christopher Pike, the previous captain of the USS Enterprise.

Jeffrey Hunter originated the role in the unaired pilot, “The Cage,” and in reused footage that appeared in “The Menagerie.”

Hunter was a star before taking on the role. He’d appeared in three John Ford westerns, including “The Searchers” with John Wayne. He’d played Jesus Christ in King of Kings. He starred alongside such Hollywood legends as Spencer Tracy, Ginger Rogers, Anthony Quinn, Myrna Loy, Fred MacMurray, Robert Mitchum, Sean Connery, Peter Lawford, Rod Steiger, Richard Burton, and Henry Fonda (just to name a few.) He declined to play Pike in a second Star Trek pilot, saying that he didn’t want to be tied down to one project. Sadly, Hunter died in 1969, after falling down some stairs at his home.

Sean Kenney was the second actor to portray Pike. He was the one in the wheelchair in “The Menagerie.” Apart from his Star Trek Roles as Pike and Lieutenant DePaul, Kenney had a short onscreen career, appearing in a few cult horror movies. He’s been principally a photographer since the 1970s.

Bruce Greenwood played Pike in Star Trek (2009). His first “big” movie was appearing as a National Guardsman in First Blood (the first Rambo movie.) He later played JFK in Thirteen Days. He’s had a long and distinguished career as a character actor. He’s also the first actor I’ve written about here who’s been on both Jake and the Fatman AND Matlock. So there’s that. He was also among the actors considered to play Benjamin Sisko on Deep Space Nine.

Anson Mount took over the role for Star Trek: Discovery and will reprise the role in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. Mount has had a 20-year career on TV and in the movies. He’s made guest appearances on Ally McBeal, Sex and the City, CSI: Miami and Lost. Movie appearances include Boiler Room, Straw Dogs, In Her Shoes, and the Britney Spears vehicle, Crossroads.

And in the super trivia of super trivia, there are only two degrees of separation between Jeffrey Hunter and Anson Mount.

Hunter appeared in The Longest Day with Rod Steiger. Steiger’s last film role was in Poolhall Junkies, with a young Anson Mount.